Gender Differences and Middle School Students’ Views of Smartphone and Social Media for Learning, Social Connection, and Entertainment

Jenny S. Wakefield and Leila A. Mills

The University of North Texas - Department of Learning Technologies

Anna H. Wakefield

Jasper High School

EdMedia, Tampere, Finland, June 23 – 27, 2014

Background

´  Educators increasingly use social media in the classroom

´  Social tools are popular among students of all ages

´  Studies focus on the use of social media for formal and informal learning as well as general use and time spent on social media. For example:

´  Dunlap & Lowenthal, 2009

´  Mazman & Usluel, 2010

´  Mills, Knezek, & Khaddage, 2014

´  Few studies have looked at the entertainment and socialization aspect among Middle School students.

Objective

The study began as an IRB approved Science Fair study. The following research questions apply:

1. For what purpose do middle school students use social media?

2. For what purposes and how do students use their smartphones a) learning b) socializing c) play/entertainment

Hypothesis

It was hypothesized that girls would enjoy social media more than boys and that both boys and girls would use smartphones more for play/entertainment than for actual learning.

1. For what purpose do middle school students use social media?

2. For what purposes and how do students use their smartphones? a) learning b) socializing c) play/entertainment

Theoretical Framework

Learning and Teaching as Communicative Actions LTCA is a framework that has been used for both study of social media and mobile learning.

´  Warren & Wakefield, 2012

´  Warren & Wakefield, 2013

The framework builds on Habermas’ theory (1984) of communicative actions. At the core of human learning and knowledge sharing are communicative acts towards shared understanding. These acts are normative, strategic, constative, dramaturgical, as well as affective communicative actions.

Method Participants, Data Collection, and Analysis

Method

´  Middle school in the southwest United States

´  36 students, ages 12-14 years

´  11 male / 25 female

´  Participants & Setting

Method

´  IRB approval ´  Students volunteered to participate

´  Parent signed consent forms

´  Survey research ´  Survey Monkey or

´  Paper version

´  Data Collected : ´  Demographic information

´  Likert Type: 31 items in two main scales:

´  Social Media Scale - 13 items – adapted from Alsobrook, Knezek, & Wakefield 2012 (Knezek, Mills, & Wakefield, 2012)

´  Smartphone Scale – 18 items - adapted from Flanagin and Metzger (2001

´  Data Collection

Method

´  Initial analysis in Survey Monkey

´  In-depth analysis in SPSS

´  Independent variable: Gender

´  Principal Component Analysis (PCA ) indicated seven scales: 3 for social media (SMS) and 4 for Smartphone (SPS)

1.  Benefits of SM

2.  Learning with SM

3.  Communicating with SM

4.  Social Connection SPS

5.  Learning and information seeking SPS

6.  Entertainment SPS

7.  Communication SPS

´  Analysis

Method - Scales

DeVellis (1991)

Results

´  Group mean differences were examined by calculation of Cohen’s d effect size due to small sample size

´  Group means by survey items are of interest as large differences in means are visible for boys and girls:

Cohen (1988)

Results

´  Two Smartphone items were found to have a very large effect size by gender:

´  Girls the idea of using Smartphone for Learning, ES=1.02

´  Girls very attached to my Smartphone, ES=1.01

´  Girls entertaining with Smartphone, ES=.61

´  Girls feeling less lonely when using Smartphone, ES=.67

´  Girl faster response from friends, ES=.60

´  Boys lower perception than girls of entertainment value of Smartphone, ES=.51

´  Girls to be part of a group, ES=.46

´  Girls to pass time when bored, ES=.45

Limitations

´  This study has several limitations

´  Small sample size

´  Female respondents outnumbered male respondents

´  One location only

´  Study looked at Smartphone use only. Additional findings regarding social media use were not included due to the paper’s space limits

Future work

´  A larger study is underway. This includes

´  Middle school data will be compare to

´  Undergraduate students

´  Graduate students

´  The study will explore possible differences in the use of

´  Social media

´  Smartphone

´  Challenges and benefits of rapid responses for student learning environments, regardless of gender

Contribution

This pilot study contributed to our understanding of communication technology use among young leaners and the findings inform instructional designers and educators on how these tools are perceived based on gender.

This research informs of how smartphones are used within informal and formal educational environments and provides a stepping stone towards how we may leverage the academic potential of smartphones.

References: Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. DeVellis, R.F. (1991). Scale development. Newbury Park, NJ: Sage Publications. Dunlap, J.C., & Lowenthal, P.R. (2009). Tweeting the night away: Using Twitter to enhance social presence. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 129-135. Flanagin, A.J., & Metzger, M.J. (2001). Internet use in the contemporary media environment. Human Communication Research, 27(1), 153-181. Habermas, J. (1984). The theory of communicative action. Volume 1. Reason and the rationalization of society. (Translated by T. McCarthy). Boston, MA: Beacon Press. Knezek, G., Mills, L.A., & Wakefield, J.S. (2012, November). Measuring student attitudes toward learning with social media: Validation of the social media learning scale. In Proceedings of the annual convention of the Association of Educational Communications and Technology, (pp. 127-134). AECT, Louisville, Kentucky. Mazman, S.G., & Usluel, Y.K. (2010). Modeling educational usage of Facebook. Computers & Education 55(2), 444-453. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.008. Mills, L.A., Knezek, G., & Khaddage, F. (2014). Information Seeking, Information Sharing, and going mobile: Three bridges to informal learning. Computers in Human Behavior, 32(324-334). Warren, S.J., & Wakefield, J.S. (2013). Learning and teaching as communicative actions: A theory for mobile learning. In Z. Berge, & L. Muilenburg (Eds.). The mobile learning handbook. (pp. 70-81) Routledge: Taylor & Francis Ltd. Warren, S. J., & Wakefield, J.S. (2012). Learning and teaching as communicative actions: Social media as educational tool. In K. Seo. (Ed.). Using social media effectively in the classroom. New York, NY: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Jenny S. Wakefield and Leila A. Mills The University of North Texas

Department of Learning Technologies

Anna H. Wakefield Jasper High School